


The Sleepover

by bitboozy



Series: Domesticated [6]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/M, Family, New Relationship, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 03:35:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20108506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitboozy/pseuds/bitboozy
Summary: “If we fall asleep, then we fall asleep,” she says stubbornly. “I’m good and tired of not waking up next to you, Alec Hardy.”





	The Sleepover

A month has gone by since it started. Ellie and Alec have still not come out as Ellie & Alec to her children. It’s never the right time. Tom is never in the right mood. Fred can never sit still long enough. This does not stop them, however, from the occasional tryst at the Miller house after the boys have gone to bed. This is the one benefit of the master bedroom essentially being the attic.

Last night, they did not make it to the bed. They made it to the bed_room_ and that felt like a feat in and of itself. The bed was just five steps too far out of their way. Ellie has a not-so-secret desire that lingers within her at all times to be, as she puts it, “taken up against a wall,” and she’s started wearing skirts much more often in order to facilitate this. They’ve yet to do it at work. But they’ve come _awfully _close. 

Afterward, they both hop in the shower, _mostly _restraining themselves from any funny business, and he is prepared to get dressed and head home, when she crawls into her bed and opens the covers to him.

“Come on then,” she says. “There’s a new _Midsummer Murders_, I know you’re dying to see which one of us can crack the case first.”

He hesitates, standing there in his briefs. “What if we…” He cocks his head to the side. 

“If we fall asleep, then we fall asleep,” she says stubbornly. “I’m good and tired of not waking up next to you, Alec Hardy.”

Though he still has questions, that’s all he needs to hear to climb into bed with her and slip under the covers. He settles into her open arms and lays his head against her chest. She grabs the tv remote and cues up the telly. They spend the entire episode of _Midsummer Murders _trying to solve the case before the on-screen detectives do. They do in fact, by about thirty seconds, and after it’s over she grabs her phone.

“I’ll set an alarm for fifteen minutes ‘til Fred o’clock,” she explains.

“And what time is that?”

“7am is Fred o’clock, so 6:45.”

He groans. She snuggles in closer to him. “I know, but just think, that’s still nearly _six more hours _in my arms. We’ve never had that before.”

“Mmm…” His arms encircle her waist and he buries his face in her throat, gently sucking on the smooth skin he finds there. She’s running her fingers through his hair lightly, while his hand slides up underneath her loose-fitting t-shirt.

“Alec.”

“Mm.”

His hand finds her breast and squeezes it.

“_Alec_,” she giggles.

“Mmmhmm,” he murmurs into her collarbone. 

“We’ve an early start in the morning…” She reminds him.

“I’m finally gettin’ to spend the night with the woman I love, for god’s sakes will you just let me enjoy this and fondle you for a while?”

She laughs, acquiescing. His fingers trace the outline of her breast as he kisses his way down her chest.

“It’s bloody unfair, you know,” he mumbles. “How good you taste."

He finds her nipple and pinches it before continuing to knead her flesh. A boney leg slips between hers.

“_Alec_,” she whines.

“Oh, stop your complainin’, lass,” he responds, sucking on her other breast through the thin fabric of her shirt.

“We need to – ahhhh – _sleep_.”

“We will. Just one more minute.”

She has to laugh, though it comes between aroused sighs. He pushes the loose fabric away and sucks on the side of her breast until he’s certain he’s left a mark, meanwhile his hand continues to fondle the other one.

“_Christ._” This was his plan, she deduces, though she’s only half-coherent. Get her this far gone so she’s powerless to say no to the rest.

She feels his hand slide down her body and under the waistband of her knickers. She sits up abruptly. “No. Nope. No way.” He looks at her like a lost puppy. “_Sleep_.”

Sad Hardy pull his hands away and lies back on the bed. She props herself up on he elbow and looks down at him.

“You poor thing,” she says, tracing his bottom lip, currently forming a pout, with her thumb. 

“I was going to do very bad things to you, Ellie Miller,” he informs her, petulantly. “And now you’ll never know.”

She snuggles against his chest, arm tight around his waist. “We have to figure out how to sleep in the same bed without…” She makes a vague hand gesture.

“Don’t imagine I’ll have any problems with that.”

“_Evidence to the contrary_,” she counters. “We can’t just shag all night every night. We’ve got jobs and kids. If we’re going to wake up together, we have to, you know, _sleep _together first.”

He holds her tightly with both arms and kisses the top of her head, breathing in the scent of her. “Love you,” he says, already starting to drift off.

She tilts her head up and kisses the side of his mouth. “I love _you_.”

He’s asleep. Then within mere seconds, she’s asleep.

And _then_, after what _seems _like only seconds, Fred is no longer asleep. It’s 6:30, a full thirty minutes before Fred o’clock, when he comes padding into Ellie’s bedroom in his footy pyjamas. 

Alec and Ellie are quite entangled underneath the duvet. She’s lying on her back, his face is buried in her neck, an arm tight around her middle, their legs hooked together. Neither one of them has slept better in years.

*

Fred stands on his tip-toes, sensing something unfamiliar in his mother’s bed. He doesn’t remember ever seeing someone else in bed with her, so the notion is confusing to him. People sleep alone. Beds are for one. Fred has a bed, Tom has a bed, Mumma has a bed. With great curiosity, Fred climbs onto the foot of the bed to get a better look. The person in bed with his mother is one he recognizes, thank goodness. But Fred thought work was for working and not for sleeping. Then Fred notices Mumma is _smiling_. In her _sleep_. He usually only finds her cranky and frowny in the morning. Fred likes to be the one making her smile so he’s unsure about all this. He does like DI Hardy. DI Hardy chases him around when he wants to play. DI Hardy picked him up from nursery once and they stopped for 99s. But DI Hardy doesn’t go in Mumma’s bed. He goes in Mumma’s work. But Fred doesn’t feel scared. He can’t be scared when Mumma is happy. Also, he wonders what a DI is.

Fred crawls up the bed and _jumps _on Mumma and DI Hardy.

*

A sudden jolt wakes them, limbs untangling then tangling again in the frenzy. Fred is on top of them, a look of pure, unadulterated glee on his face.

“_Fred_!” Ellie exclaims, more relieved than anything else. In her dream she’d been running after an armed suspect.

Fred giggles and immediately hugs her with all his might. Ellie kisses and kisses him, and nearly forgets that Alec is next to her.

“Mumma! _DI Hardy_,” Fred says conspiratorially, as if he’s letting her know Alec is there.

Alec has inched away just enough to get his bearings, sitting up against the headboard and rubbing his eyes.

“DI Hardy has no shirt,” Fred observes astutely.

Ellie gasps. “No shirt! Should we tell him?”

Fred nods. “DI Hardy, you lost your shirt.”

“Uh…thanks a lot, wee Fred,” Alec replies, blinking away sleep.

“What do you think happened to it?” Ellie asks Fred, more enthusiastically than anyone should be after having just been so rudely awakened.

“Solve the case!” Fred exclaims. Then he looks at DI Hardy. “Mumma is an a-tective. Mumma is the best a-tective.”

“Oh, Freddie, DI Hardy knows all about that. He’s Mumma’s _boss_!”

“Not as a good an a-tective as Mumma though,” Fred insists.

“Right you are, Fred,” Alec replies, finally adjusting to his surroundings. “Your mum’s the best there is.”

“Best Mumma.”

Ellie smiles smugly at Alec, then smooches her son’s cheeks, pulling him into a snuggle. Fred lets himself be snuggled, relaxing into Ellie and quietly staying there for a moment. Ellie and Alec exchange glances, hers apologetic, his a little in awe.

Then Fred sits up again. “Were you working?”

“Uh,” Ellie says. “We _were _working. And then we fell asleep.”

“I like to fall asleep with Mumma too,” Fred says to Alec. “Mumma is snuggly.”

Ellie bites her lip to keep from laughing.

“Your mumma is very snuggly indeed,” Alec agrees. “In fact I believe I’ve never slept better.”

Ellie is beaming, and between the two of them her heart is melting.

“Fred.” She tries to get her very active son’s full attention. “What would you think if DI Hardy fell asleep with Mumma more often?”

“Too much working!” Fred complains.

“What if he fell asleep with Mumma even when he’s not working.”

This gives Fred pause. He considers it thoughtfully.

“Do _you _want that, Mumma?”

“I think it would make me quite happy, yes.”

Fred thinks about it some more.

“Does DI Hardy like cartoons in the morning?”

Ellie grins. “I dunno, you’ll have to ask him.”

Fred looks at Alec. “I watch cartoons when I wake up. Do you watch cartoons?”

“I’d watch cartoons with _you_,” Alec reasons, taking the child’s question very seriously. “If your mum will let me, that is.”

Fred turns to Ellie, a matter of some urgency. “Can DI Hardy watch cartoons with me, Mumma?” 

Ellie kisses his little cheek. “Only if you’ll call him Alec.”

“But his name’s DI Hardy.”

Ellie nods. “You know how people at work call Mumma ‘DS Miller’?”

“Uh huh.”

“But what’s my real name?”

“Ellie!”

“It’s just like that. Alec is DI Hardy’s real name, when he’s not at work,” she explains.

“Alec?” Fred says to the man, as if to confirm. Alec nods. “Cartoons now?”

Alec looks at Ellie. She shrugs. “Be my guest.”

Fred crawls over Alec and off the bed, holding his hand out to him. “Cartoons!”

Alec gets out of bed, grabs the robe off the back of the bedroom door, and follows Fred out helplessly.

Ellie lies in bed for a while, her heart warm and toasty, her body surprisingly well-rested but lazy. After a bit, she crawls out of bed and puts on a pair of pyjama bottoms. With Fred downstairs watching cartoons with Alec, she knows she has run out of time to do something she’s long been putting off.

She approaches Tom’s bedroom, hearing the faint sound of cartoons from downstairs. She knocks lightly on his door, then opens it, finding him predictably still asleep.

“Tom, sweetheart,” she beckons quietly, trying to gently rouse him what always seems to be a very deep sleep. He stirs. “Love. Come on now, wake up.”

He stretches and stirs, eyes still closed. Ellie sits down on the edge of the bed. He rolls over to face her without opening his eyes, and unconsciously curls against her. It’s rare he doesn’t just crankily tell her to go away and turn away from her, so Ellie lies fully down on the bed next to him, and is utterly thrilled when he cozies up to her sleepily.

“Tom, love.”

“Hmm.”

“Can you wake up, sweetheart?” She asks, stroking his hair. “Need to discuss something with you.”

“No,” Tom complains. “Too early.”

“I’m afraid it can’t wait, lovely.”

“Fine.” But he doesn’t move, only barely opens his eyes. She rubs his back.

“It’s about DI Hardy.”

His eyes open now. “Wha?”

Ellie exhales nervously. “He’s downstairs watching cartoons with your brother.” 

“Why?” 

“Well. Because he spent the night here.”

“Working late again?” Tom asks, sitting up.

“No, love,” she replies. “He stayed with me.”

“Like in your room.”

“Yes.”

“You’re _dating _Hardy.”

“We’re together, love, yeah.” Ellie searches his eyes for signs of approval or disapproval. They remain fairly neutral.

“He’s a bit weird,” Tom comments, thinking the idea through. “’Spose he…takes good care of you though.”

Ellie raises an eyebrow. “He…what?”

“Like on the job and all,” he explains. “You’re partners. You take care of each other.”

She nods. “Reckon we do.”

A brief silence.

“Are you gonna like…shag him and stuff?”

It takes Ellie too long to figure out how to respond to that, so Tom keeps talking. “You’ll be like, snogging all the time.”

“Well, not _all _the time.”

“Like you and Dad used to.”

They both tense up at the mention of his father. Ellie sighs. “I guess it’ll be a little like that, yeah.” 

“Okay.” Both Ellie _and _Tom seem surprised by this acceptance. “Does Fred like him?”

“Seems to,” Ellie answers honestly. “They’re together now.”

“Okay,” Tom says again.

Ellie smiles widely, blinking back tears.

“Okay.” She brushes his hair out of his face. “Love you.” Then kisses his forehead. “More than chocolate.”

“Me too,” he says, then slinks back under the covers. “Can I have five more minutes?”

Ellie gets up. “Oh, fine. But in five minutes I’m sending the little monster up here.”

Tom pulls the covers over his head. Ellie leaves him alone, and heads downstairs. There she finds Alec on the couch and Fred on his lap, cartoons blaring on the television. Fred leans back against Alec, holding a plastic bowl of cheerios and lazily poping them into his mouth as his eyes are glued to the screen. Ellie could die right then and there.

She moves to sit beside them, and kisses Alec’s cheek.

“Mumma watch,” Fred demands, without checking to see if she does or not.

Ellie is too busy grinning at Alec.

“What?” He asks, though he likes it.

“Told Tom just now,” she says. “He’s okay.”

“Is he?” Alec raises an eyebrow.

“Thinks you’re a bit weird,” Ellie admits, smirking.

Fred shifts restlessly until he’s lying on _both _Alec and Ellie’s laps, draped across them like he’s posing for a portrait.

“’Spose we’re really doing this then,” Alec says.

“Yep,” she agrees. “It’s real now.”

He looks at her, gaze soft. “El.”

She looks back at him, tickled by the nickname. “Yeah.”

“Think my leg’s fallin’ asleep.”

***


End file.
